A Man Walks into a Bar
by thegirlnextdoor101
Summary: A scene in "A man walks into a bar" which I thought needed to be written! what happens when Ziva and Rachel confront each other about Ari? will they fight, or will they both find the closure they so desperately need?


**_Hello!_**

**_so this is a little one shot i thought up while watching "a man walks into a bar". I loved it, and i (almost) cried. However I thought that there was relatively little Ziva in the episode, which was surprising seeing as Ziva killed Ari who killed Kate, and the whole thing was about kate. or maybe thats just me :P_**

**_so enjoy and please review! :D_**

**_DISCLAIMER: disclaimed_**

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**_A Man Walks into a Bar_**

"Hey Ziva!"

Ziva turned around at the sound of her name. Rachel was a few paces behind her running to catch up with Ziva's long strides. Ziva plastered a fake smile on her face as she turned to face Kate's sister. She had known that Rachel was Kate's sister all along. It had been in Kate's file when she had read up on every member of the team. She had never thought that the piece of information would come back to haunt her.

When Sarah had caught up Ziva came to a standstill and veered around to face her.

"Was there something you wanted?" Ziva asked. The words came out cold and sharp, and Ziva was aware of that. But she could not help but feel icy to the woman who she had unwillingly spilled her darkest desires to. The rational part of Ziva's mind knew that it was not this woman's fault that she was so good at her job. Rachel's job was Rachel's job, just as much as her job was her job. But she still did want to admit that she had fallen for the oldest psychological tricks in the book.

"I feel that I have heard you talk for this week. I think it is only fair that you get to hear my thoughts," Rachel began. Ziva could tell that all the words were well measured, and Rachel had clearly thought this through.

"When I took this job, it was not just for the professional challenge," Rachel said, smiling to herself, "it was because I wanted to get to know Kate's team."

Ziva looked away from Rachel at that moment. All of that week she had known that the thing that was separating the team was going to be stretched and enlarged. She knew that no matter how hard she tried, whatever she did, she would never be truly part of that team. Not when Kate's ghost still lingered on. And Rachel's arrival had done nothing but enforce that idea in her mind.

Rachel was not finished

"All of Kate's team," she said, her meaning clear. At Ziva's evident surprise, she continued.

"Just because you were never on the team at the same time does not make you any less of a part of that team.

They need you, Ziva. More than you will probably ever know."

Silence fell on the two women, as each contemplated their next move in the game.

"Gibbs told me," Rachel started, and Ziva took in a sharp gulp of air. She had naively believed that that particular part of their shared past would not have come up. But nothing was ever buried forever, including the dead. Of course the fact that Ari was Ziva's brother was going to surface at some time. She had just not imagined it to be like this.

Ziva hoped with all of her heart that Rachel was not going to thank her for killing Ari. She prayed that Rachel did not do anything thing stupid, like tell her how the world was a better place without him. She did not think she could control her emotions again if that were to happen. But instead she said something unexpected.

"I am sorry for your loss."  
At Ziva's expression she smiled wryly.

"Death is death. No matter whom it takes."

Ziva had to smile at that. It was probably the only words that she had received about Ari's death that had been any comfort. It was not like "good riddance" was any good for the grieving soul. After Ari's death, no-one really paid much attention to Ziva. The young control officer who had been in charge of an officer who went bad and died. Nothing to see there, nothing new. All through the days after she had heard nothing but words of hatred towards her brother, about the man who he had become. They called him the most awful names, and even those who had grown up with him deserted his loyalty in favour of appearing to agree with them all. It was then when Ziva snapped. She had had enough of it all and she wanted out. She wanted to start out somewhere else where no-one would associate her with her brother. So she came to NCIS. And the rest was history.

Until now.

Ziva could not find the words to explain what she was feeling at that moment. The jumble of thoughts and emotions were so much for her to get her head around, she was not going to attempt to share them with Rachel. Instead she just smiled, and Rachel seemed to get the message.

"I hope you find closure," Rachel said to Ziva as they parted ways. Little did she know that that was exactly what Rachel had given her…

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**_Reviews please! :)_**


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